As of 1 July 2009, the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Pelindaba Treaty) is one ratification away from entering into force. The Treaty will enter into force on the date of deposit of the 28th Instrument of ratification. With Malawi depositing its ratification instrument with the African Union (AU) on 28 April 2009, any of the […]
Syria’s regime says it will need at least a year to dismantle its chemical weapons arsenal, but if Libya’s experience is anything to go by, this is a hopelessly optimistic forecast. Damascus has provided the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) with a full inventory of its chemical arsenal, in order to […]
On 12 August 1883 at 8:00 a.m., Mexico’s Zacatecas Observatory’s boss Jose A. Bonilla was preparing to study the Sun’s corona when he observed an amazing phenomenon. He saw several distant objects that were close together and crossing the solar disc. In the space of two hours, while the sky was clear and he was […]
On February 15 at 3:20:26 UTC, a supersonic flying space rock, roughly the size of a van or a small truck, entered Earth’s atmosphere, exploded at 24,140 meters over Russia’s Chelyabinsk, and produced a total destructive blast power of 500 kilotons. This means the destructive power yield was 30 times the blast yield of the […]
The OPCW organised a special 2-day induction programme on 12 and 13 September 2013 for a group of senior government representatives from the Federal Republic of Somalia to assist country’s implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The delegation was headed by H.E. Ambassador Yusuf Mohamed Ismail Bari-Bari, Permanent Representative of Somalia to the United […]
On 28 June 2013 the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force for Somalia, making it the 189th State Party to the treaty. Somalia had earlier deposited its instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, on 29 May, and 30 days later the Convention entered into force for the country. This has reduced […]